How to enable dotnet watch in Jetbrains Raider

Hi guys, while working on my pet API project in C# and .NET Core I realized that I miss having the debugger 'watch' for file changes.

The standard way of doing this in .NET Core 2.0 is to setup dotnet-watch . It seems that starting with .NET Core 2.1 this step isn't going to be necessary, so one less step to do.
Until then you can follow the official tutorial for setting up dotnet-watch.

In order to make it work in Rider, you need to do some simple steps.

1. Under Run/Debug Configurations, click the plus sign and pick Run external tool
   

2. Set dotnet-watch, and make sure to set the proper Working Directory macro $ProjectFileDir$
   

Update
Since there's no implicit way of setting up the ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT in Rider before running the command, here's a quick way of adding a parameter to your program to enable the switch.

Modify Program.cs

        public static IWebHost BuildWebHost(string[] args)
        {
            var config = new ConfigurationBuilder().AddCommandLine(args).Build();
            var enviroment = config["environment"] ?? "Development";

            return WebHost.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
                          .UseEnvironment(enviroment)
                          .UseStartup<Startup>()
                          .Build();
        }

Now you can run

dotnet watch run --environment="Development"

(or any other environment variable) and have the specific environment setup depending on your run configuration.

Comments

[Sean Killeen]

Hey! I've noticed that in this post you use "guys" as a reference to the entire community, which is not made up of only guys but a variety of community members.

I'm running an experiment and hope you'll participate. Would you consider changing "guys" to a more inclusive term? If you're open to that, please let me know when you've changed it and I'll delete this comment.

For more information and some alternate suggestions, see dev.to/seankilleen/a-quick-experim....

Thanks for considering!

[Alexandru Bucur]

Hi Sean

Thank you for the initiative but as long as "guys" as per o ford's dictionary means a group of people I feel this is just wasted time that diverts from the actual problems in he community when it comes to gender equality.

[Sean Killeen]

I speak to that in my post, but if you truly feel strongly enough to not change one word, then I'll have to accept that. Disappointing, but thanks for the response.

[Robert Grants]

People understand "guys" in the second person plural to be gender neutral. Using "hey guys" and "you guys" (or even "guys" as short hand when in the second person) is use to address all men, all women, or mixed-gender groups. There is no issue with using it, therefore.

[BentoAldo]

Is this still valid for dotnet core 3.1?